The Premier League “almost funds” European football, with La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga and Ligue 1 at risk of becoming “feeder leagues”, according to French journalist Julien Laurens.
Premier League clubs spent £815million during the January transfer window.
That’s more than four times the combined £198million in Spain, Italy, Germany and France.
“At the moment the only league where you can afford anyone is the Premier League,” Laurens said.
Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Euro Leagues podcast, the French football expert added: “Bournemouth have the capacity to spend £60m or £70m in a January transfer window. other leagues can’t become feeder leagues for the Premier League, but right now that’s what it looks like.
“People who run French clubs rely on English clubs to spend £20m or £30m to sign one of their players. If you have a young player who isn’t too bad in Ligue 1, someone ‘England can say ‘he could be good, here’s £40m’.
“The Premier League almost funds European football.
“If English clubs only spent money buying players in the Premier League, a lot of [French] clubs would think ‘oh no, we need that money’.
“Fifa and UEFA need to look into it. I don’t know if you can limit spending to £100m or £150m. [per club]I don’t know if it’s possible.”
Britain’s transfer record was broken on deadline day with Chelsea signing Argentina midfielder from Benfica Enzo Fernandez for €121m (£107m), with the Blues spending around £288m sterling in January alone.
“It’s amazing that the country that has protested the most against the Super League is [effectively] the Super League,” added James Horncastle, a German football expert.
“You can’t fault the Premier League for being the best commercial league in the world. But it saddens me that Europe has become development leagues for Premier League teams.”
Horncastle felt Premier League clubs would struggle to get rid of their unwanted players as no one else would be able to afford the transfer fee or cover their wages.
He added: “Premier League clubs are so much richer than others. They sign these players for huge sums, give them ‘reasonable’ salaries for Chelsea, but those salaries are super, super expensive compared to European clubs. , it is therefore difficult to sell or lend them in Europe.
“When Manchester City were selling Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko, they sold them to Arsenal, Raheem Sterling to Chelsea.
“European clubs cannot afford these players in the Premier League, even those sitting on the bench. What they earn is too expensive for German teams.”
Figures from financial services firm Deloitte indicate that spending by top-flight English clubs accounted for 79% of the total for Europe’s ‘big five’ football leagues.
“Over the last five years, £1billion has gone from England to France, £1billion from England to Germany,” said Belgian football journalist Kristof Terreur.
“The Belgian league likes to sell its players to English clubs.
“Belgian clubs have all lost €200m in the last accounting period, then the Premier League comes in and they can sell their players – the Premier League saves them.
“It’s a pretty desperate situation in Europe.”
